Managing to Make a Difference

Chapter 30Recruit Continuously

Continuous recruiting is the foundation for building extraordinary teams. In many organizations, the human resources department bears the primary responsibility for recruiting. This leads many managers down the wrong path, and they do not take any responsibility for recruiting. No matter how great your human resources department may be, do not make the mistake of leaving your fate entirely in their hands. Recruit continuously, looking for the right people for your team, and send HR good candidates you have already identified and vetted.

Be proactive. Be the kind of manager who is constantly looking for talented people, even if you do not have an opening. Because so many organizations run quite lean with their staffing, when someone leaves, the pressure to fill the position tempts managers and human resources departments to compromise their hiring standards rather than hold out for the right person. If you have been proactively recruiting, you will have more (and better) options, and you will not have to compromise on talent to quickly fill a vacancy.

Create a talent bench. This is a group of external candidates who have the right talent and would be a good fit for your team, but for whom you do not have a position at the moment. To create a strong bench, you must recruit continuously, whether you have openings or not. The more candidates you have who are already qualified, the stronger your bench.

I once knew an executive chef of a very large hotel ...